Thus saith the Lord: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for on these things I delight." Jeremiah 9:23-24

"Oh to Grace how great a debtordaily I'm constrained to be.Let thy goodness, like a fetterbind my wandering heart to Thee!"

Sunday, December 16, 2007

If Christ Be Not Raised, Our Faith is Vain

1 Corinthians 15:17"And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins."

"The opening verses of the second chapter of the Second Epistle to Timothy are in essence a comprehensive exhortation to faithfulness. The apostle Paul was lying imprisoned at Rome, with expectation of no other issue than death. The infant Church had fallen upon perilous times. False teachers were assailing the very essence of the Gospel. Defection had invaded the innermost circle of the apostle's companions. Treachery had attacked his own person. Over against all these dreadful manifestations of impending destruction, he strenuously exhorts his own son in faith, Timothy, to steadfast faithfulness. Faithfulness to himself, faithfulness to the cause he had at heart, faithfulness to the truth as he preached it, faithfulness to Jesus Christ, their common Redeemer and Lord.

The temptations to unfaithfulness by which Timothy was assailed were very numerous and very specious. Many good men had fallen and were falling victims to them. The perverted teachings of the errorists of the day were urged with a great show of learning and with eminent plausibility. And they were announced with fine scorn which openly declared that only dull wits could rest in the crude ideas with which Paul had faced the world-- and lost. The sword of persecution had been ruthlessly unsheathed, and sufferings and a cruel death watched in the way of those who would fain walk in the path Paul had broken out. It seemed as if the whole fabric which the apostle had built up at such cost of labour and pain was about to fall about his ears.

Paul does not for a moment, however, lose courage, either for himself, or for his faithful followers. But neither does he seek to involve Timothy unwittingly in the difficulties and dangers in which he found himself. He rather bids him first of all to count the whole cost. And then he points him to a source of strength which will supply all his needs. We called the passage an exhortation. We might better call it, more sepcifically, an encouragement. And the encouragement culminates in a very remarkable sentence. This sentence is pregnant enough to reveal at once the central thought of Paul's Gospel and the citadel of his own strength. Amid all the surrounding temptations, all the encompassing dangers, Paul bids Timothy to bear in mind, as the sufficing source of abounding strength, the great central doctrine, --or rather, let us say, the great centract fact-- of his preaching, of his faith, of his life. And he enunciates this great fact, in these words: Jesus Christ raised from the dead, of the seed of David.

...Paul bids Timothy in the midst of all the beseting perplexities and dangers which encompassed him to strenthen his heart by hearing constantly in remembrance, not Jesus Christ simpliciter, but Jesus Christ conceived specifically as the Lord of the Universe, who has been dead, but now lives again and abides for ever in the power of an endless life...

It is not to be overlooked, of course, that Paul adverts to the resurrection of Christ here with his mind absorbed not so much in the act of His rising as in its issues. "Bear in mind," he says,"Jesus Christ, as one who has been raised from the dead": that is to say, as one who could not be holden of the grave, but has burst the bonds of death, and lo! He lives for evermore. But neither can it be overlooked that it is specifically to the resurrection, which is an act, that he adverts; and that he adverts to it in such a manner as to make it manifest that the fact of the resurrection of Christ held a place in his Gospel which deserves to be called nothing less than central...To Paul, it is clear, the resurrection of Christ was the hinge on which turned all his hopes and all his confidence, in life and also in death...

It is through the power exerted by His resurrection that His saving work takes effect on men. That is to say, Paul discovers the centre of gravity of the Christian hope no less than of the Christian faith in the fact of the resurrection of Christ. And of the Christian life as well. From the great fact that Christ has risen from the dead, preceed all the influences by which Christians are made in life and attainments, here and hereafter, like him.

O the comfort, O the joy, O the courage, that dwells in the great fact that Jesus is the Risen One, of the seed of David; that as the Risen One He has become Head over all things; and that He must reign unil He shall have put all things under His feet."

-B.B. Warfield from "The Risen Christ "

*I pray that the fact that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead willencourage you just as it encouraged Timothy in Paul's second epistle to him.Let it be your strength as you endure the tribulations and laborings forChrist in the midst of a fallen world.

About Me

This blog was made for one reason: to bring glory to the Kingdom of God. In a world where the truth has been exchanged for a lie, I'm here to contend for Biblical truth and to get the word out about the one true Gospel of Jesus Christ. Nothing fancy, just a way to share beliefs on Biblical Christianity and to provide a sound source for people out there hungry for the truth, not just another vain and empty worldview.

In order for us to understand the Good News of the Gospel we must first understand the bad news: we are born separated from God and dead in our trespasses of sin. Anyone who has broken just ONE of God's laws is guilty and deserving of an eternal death. There is nothing that we can do to "help ourselves" out of this, it must take an act of God. It is Christ alone who rescues a sinner's heart and transforms it into a new one that desire's to know God, therefore it is Christ alone who gets the glory. This work of salvation is a gift from the Lord and comes by humbling yourself before Him and repenting of your sins and believing on Christ's substitution death on the cross. Those receiving God's free gift of grace are forgiven of their sins and are chosen to live a life here on earth as well as for all eternity with the Lord. WHAT GREAT NEWS! Unfortunatly many professing Christian's have taken on the name and have forgotten to "count the cost" of what it means to be a true follower of Christ. It is important that we search the scriptures to uncover the true Gospel so we can learn about the life of self-denial that we have been called to live.

Favorite Posts

"A true recognition of God's sovereignty humbles as nothing else does or can humble, and brings the heart into lowly submission before God, causing us to relinquish our own self-will and making us delight in the perception and performance of the Divine will."-A.W. Pink

"We must be clothed with humility; for the proud in spirit are those that cannot bear to be trampled upon, but grow outrageous, and fret themselves, when they are hardly bestead. That will break a proud man's heart, which will not break a humble man's sleep. Mortify pride, therefore, and a lowly spirit will easily be reconciled to a low condition."
-Matthew Henry